Silver Nuggets: Bruins win the Stanley Cup; Case against drafting Landeskog
The Boston Bruins won 4-0 last night in Vancouver to clinch the club's first Stanley Cup title since 1972. It also meant that former Senators star defenceman, Zdeno Chara became the second European captain to lead his club to a Stanley Cup after Nicklas Lidstrom was the first. Chris Kelly also became the second ever Ottawa Senators draft pick to win the Stanley Cup, following Marian Hossa last season. You have to feel sorry for Vancouver though, they had a wonderful year, dominating the regular season and coming so close in the playoffs. Still, they have the Sedins under contract for three more seasons, Ryan Kesler for five more seasons and Roberto Luongo for ahem...eleven more seasons. But, that's what we thought after 2007, we had Jason Spezza, Dany Heatley and Daniel Alfredsson, so you never know.
Boston on the other hand, is just an incredibly successful sports city. They have had the following titles in recent years. Patriots (2002), Patriots (2004), Red Sox (2004), Patriots (2005), Red Sox (2007), Celtics (2008), Bruins (2011). In fact, the mighty New England Patriots now have the longest championship drought in the Boston area.
Lastly, rumours (started by me) are that the people of Montreal are protesting outside the Bell Centre against Zdeno Chara being a Stanley Cup winner. Montreal city council will vote later today on the city of Montreal officially not recognising him as a Stanley Cup winner. Failure to do this could result in Vancouver style (which are really Montreal style to begin with) riots.
Here are today's links:
General Sens News
- Nine reasons why Paul Maclean can be a successful coach of the Ottawa Senators. Between having a former Detroit general manager, Detroit head coach, Detroit assistant coach, and a plethora of Swedish players, are the Sens going to be awesome like the Red Wings? Probably not that simple I suppose. Also, Maclean is more funny than Cory Clouston. (Ottawa Citizen)
- Nichols gives his analysis on the Paul Maclean signing. (The 6th Sens)
- Corey Pronman explains why he thinks clubs with a top five draft pick should pass on Gabriel Landeskog. His three reasons are: 1) He is a safe pick in the short term who doesn't have as high a ceiling, 2) Too much emphasis on intangibles by those who rate him highly, 3) He is very well developed for his age, but others should catch up. (Hockey Prospectus)
- The Ottawa Senators provide a profile of Ryan Strome. (Ryan Strome)
- And here they provide another profile, this time for Mika Zibanejad. (Ottawa Senators)
- This year's Stanley Cup Final ranked second in the distance between the cities of the participants. The longest? The Ottawa Silver Sevens versus the Dawson City Nuggets from the Yukon. Ha! Silver Sevens! Nuggets! Also, Ottawa didn't even allow Dawson City a rest despite them having to travel to Ottawa partly by dog sled. Bad karma? (SB Nation)
More after the jump.
General Hockey News
- The people of Vancouver rioting after last night was big enough news to be on the front page of BBC. (BBC)
- I am not sure if this is photoshopped, but here is a picture of a couple making out laying on the street as the rest of Vancouver riots. Awwww! (Dmitry Chesnokov)
- Most of the blame for the Canucks loss will be placed on Roberto Luongo and the Sedin twins. (TSN)
- Last night's game tied the US hockey record for a game 7, despite it featuring a Canadian club. Big reason why: New England viewers. (Yahoo!)